Lynn Mann founded Supernature Oils, the multi-award winning cold pressed rapeseed oil business, alongside her husband Chris started in 2011. In a working life that has taken her from selling water filters, being a barmaid, a TV researcher, doing admin for Strathclyde Police, to psychotherapy, Lynn’s finally found her vocation. From the early beginnings, driving around Edinburgh trying to sell bottles of oil from the car and at farmers’ markets, Lynn now gets a real kick from seeing Supernature Oils sitting on kitchen shelves all over the country, and around the world.
“…In the most recent WES research into female entrepreneurship, 78% of respondents in the research said business advice services should be more aware of the differences in support needs between men and women…”
22 jobs later, I discovered entrepreneurship
After 22 jobs from aerobics instructor to psychotherapist I finally found a way to draw on all these career path experiences, as well as my life experiences, and channel them into running my own business.
I started Supernature Oils in 2011 with my husband and co-owner Chris, producing cold pressed rapeseed oil and infused oils on our family farm. We started it out of adversity as he was finding it harder and harder to make a living. The diversification was supposed to be a sideline, to bring in some extra cash, that I would help get off the ground then go back to my own career, as I was on a career break at the time, having had my daughter.
However, after testimonials from Michelin-starred chefs about the quality of our oil and winning several awards, we became a lot more ambitious with it. Now we have the broadest range of infused oils in the UK and are the most awarded cold pressed rapeseed oil producer in the UK, with ten national awards. Supernature is fast becoming the foremost cold pressed rapeseed oil brand in the marketplace. Our award-winning white and black truffle oils have gained a listing in Harrods. We have also recently begun exporting to several countries.
I am also a Women’s Enterprise Scotland (WES) Ambassador and am in the process of setting up a separate business which is a social enterprise.
From emailing in my pyjamas to meetings in parliament
I deal with all the sales, marketing, PR, new product development, strategy, most of the admin, and I often do deliveries. No two days are ever the same. I can be on the computer for hours and still in my pyjamas (I do work from home!) or I might be at a trade show abroad, a networking event, selling our products at a show, speaking at an event in Parliament (Scottish or Westminster!).
‘Real models’ over role models
I think that many of the challenges and opportunities are very similar for men and women, as there are lots of both in running any business, anywhere. I think in general, women in business don’t get taken as seriously as men, and in particular in Scotland I think that’s is more of a problem.
While women represent 51% of the Scottish population just 20% of all businesses are majority owned by women. I think there are many reasons for that, but a significant one is lack of confidence, and traditionally there has been a real lack of role models.
That’s something that Women’s Enterprise Scotland is now addressing with their Ambassadors programme, which offers women ‘real models’ rather than role models. i.e. women setting up and running businesses and juggling family life and business, and having crises of confidence but pushing on through.
Support for women in business in Scotland
Women’s Enterprise Scotland is a wonderful organisation that has various initiatives to support women in business, such as the programme I outlined above, but they are also great at connecting women with other organisations which may be beneficial to them. One such organisation is Investing Women, which helps Scotland’s growth by allowing aspiring female entrepreneurs to release their growth potential, positioning themselves to attract investment and growth capital.
Also, Entrepreneurial Spark, which started in Scotland and now has hubs throughout the UK, is very supportive to women and because of that have roughly a 50/50 ratio in many of their business accelerator programmes.
For Business Gateway and other enterprise support agencies, WES had developed a Business Advisor Gender Balance (BAGB) training and certification programme. It is designed to help business advisors assess the gender-specific nature of the support they provide. It offers insight into gender-appropriate techniques and best practice to help staff develop effective plans, providing a route map for analysis and action planning. They launched it to coincide with International Women’s Day.
Being mindful of the differences in support needs between male and female entrepreneurs
In the most recent WES research into female entrepreneurship, 78% of respondents in the research said business advice services should be more aware of the differences in support needs between men and women, with almost 80% stating that staff would benefit from training on the provision of gender-appropriate support.
Those who had not accessed gender specific business support pointed to the lack of local provision, with comments including, “Women entrepreneurs scale up their businesses differently – public sector services, support and products need to understand this.” The first organisations to take their staff through the BAGB programme will be Business Gateway Edinburgh and Business Gateway Fife.
Gender balance in politics in Scotland
As well as having its first female leader, the Scottish Government’s cabinet is equally balanced in terms of gender representation. Measured against the cabinet at Westminster (currently there are eight women in the UK Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, which is 35% of 23 Cabinet posts), Scotland seems to be ahead of the game. However, I think there is still much work to do in the Parliament itself, with less than 40% of MSPs being female.
Women making real and lasting change in politics by getting involved
I think it is the only way that we can hope to make real and lasting change, by getting involved. We can’t expect the currently largely male makeup of politics to take up the issues of gender inequality as passionately, and determinedly as we would, in the main.
We have the experiences and stories to make a difference, and the deep sense of injustice, so we have to use that to make our voices heard, and the more of us that do so, the louder the volume will be, and the more people will pay attention.
Key issues in the up and coming general election
Scotland obviously has the prospect of a second referendum in the background, which could be hugely affected one way or another by the results of the general election. I think confidence in a smooth Brexit and future trade agreements would be the best was to gain stability going forward, and I think that would be what most businesses in Scotland would hope for most out of a general election result.
Pressing on and overcoming uncertainty
Although Brexit and the talk of a second referendum are undoubtedly things that are causing myself and other businesses concern, I feel that even with the uncertainties and instability that this creates, we have to as a business forge ahead and continue to push for growth, acting as if things were sure and certain, to a large degree.
As we are in the early stages of building export markets and targeting increasing our sales in England, I intend to continue to do this and cross any obstacles that the current political climate may bring when I come to them!
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Scottish Parliament image credit: Paul Buckingham [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
